We’ll continue our story about Mission Command vs Command & Control next time. But following on from the previous blog where we introduced the idea of making employees accountable (fix the blame) without responsibility (fix the problem) I’d like to expose the so-called Energy Investment Model. We’ve had a lot of interest in this at every academic and teaching establishment we’ve practised at…..

So here it is …

Sometimes the terms in the quadrants are named differently (Waling Dead = Zombies = Victims; Well Poisoners = Cynics etc.) – what terms would you use? Let me explain:

Players are those people with a positive attitude and high energy levels (++), typified by people who enjoy coming to work, adding value, and appreciate being appreciated

Spectators are those with a positive attitude but low energy levels (+-), typified by those people who actually know someone or a team are doing something that will lead to disaster, but can’t be bothered to speak up (but will mutter “I told you so” to whoever will listen)

Well Poisoners are those with poor attitude and high energy (-+), typified by people who can always say why something won’t work and will keep on saying it (whether their opinion is sought or not!)

And the Zombies are those with negative attitudes and low energy (–), typified by people who can’t see the point in changing anything for the better as it’s been tried X number of times before, and besides, the new guy with the ideas will be gone in less than 2 years so nothing will really change.

You probably know people in your organisation who fit into each of these quadrants….. No names please!

So when you hire a new recruit, where would you initially place them. I imagine you would recruit Players (why else would you recruit them?).

BUT, I strongly believe our organisations, through poor management practices, batter and bruise them so much very few stay in the Players’ quadrant!

In the Private Sector, we are able to fire people (within reason) in the 3 Non-Player quadrants…

In the Public Sector, it’s a lot harder!

Is it possible to bring employees back from these 3 Non-Player quadrants? Or is it too late? I’d be interested in your comments…..

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Written by

Co-founder of Lightfoot, Director Client Services, Visiting Fellow Cranfield University, Visiting Scholar Heriot Watt University, inaugural member SEBP, providing business support to College of Policing; developing our Systems-thinking approach since starting the company in 2003.
David has significant experience in transformational business performance embedded in its leading analytic software (signalsfromnoise) and in its Systems-thinking approach. David has been instrumental in initially developing the company and guiding development of its performance management platform signalsfromnoise.